


Tethered Dimensions

by tptigger



Category: Power Rangers Dino Charge, Power Rangers R.P.M., Power Rangers Time Force
Genre: Dimensions in Danger, Gemma/Flynn McCallister, Gen, Wesley Collins/Jen Scott
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-06
Updated: 2020-01-06
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:14:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22139131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tptigger/pseuds/tptigger
Summary: Pardoxes aren't as easy to overcome as the end of Dino Super Charge would have you believe.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 14
Collections: Alpha's Magical Fic Exchange 2019





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Random_fan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Random_fan/gifts).



It started with a call from Trip. Even if it was a call from one of Wes's best friends, there were days that he felt like he just should have known better than to pick up a call from an unknown number.

It was just automatic though--Wes didn't get a lot of incoming video calls, so he wasn't carefully watching his caller ID.

"Trip!" Wes said. "I didn't know you could call my cell phone!"

"Since I needed to talk to you in a time where Earth's technology has caught up to the digital age, I made our communications system talk to the internet," Trip said. "There were some, um, interesting hacks that I needed to do to interface with the Legacy Internet connections."

"I probably don't want to ask, do I?" Wes said.

"I really don't have time to get into it," Trip said, "or rather you don't really have time for me to get into it. There is some sort of strange disturbance in the timeline cluster. And we need you to check it out."

"Eric is being run off his feet," Wes said. "I'll see what I can do on my own. What's going on?"

"We're not exactly sure. There's some sort of disturbance near Amber Beach, and it looks like there might be a new timeline forming and creating an alternate universe." Trip massaged the bridge of his nose. "Except that the branch point seems to be happening several million years ago, and yet it's just forming in Amber Beach."

"Amber Beach? That's where current team of Power Rangers is currently fighting."

"Do they have time travel capabilities?" Trip asked.

"I don't know. As usual we haven't heard anything from them and we're keeping our distance unless we're needed."

"Well," Trip said," it sounds like you guys are needed--actually it might be better if it was just you, there's a lot happening over there and we don't want to spook those kids."

"So I don't get to round up all of the Red Rangers for this one?" Wes asked.

Trip laughed. "I keep telling you, that's not a thing you should aspire to."

"You spoil all my fun, Trip," Wes said. "I'll go alone, but if Eric asks he was destined to do something super important that you absolutely couldn't tear him away from."

Trip smiled conspiratorially. "I'll do that."

"What?" Wes said.

"Spoilers," Trip replied.

"Jen's the only one who gets to River Song me," Wes said with a sigh. "So I'm off to Amber Beach?"

"Yup! Trip said brightly. "I'll text you the coordinates."

Wes wasn't sure whether he was thrilled or deeply worried that Trip could now reach him via cell phone.

* * *

Wes arrived at the coordinates Trip had given him and sighed deeply as he read the sign. _A dinosaur museum? If Tommy caused this mess I'm never letting him hear the end of it._

He parked. As he was getting out of his car, he heard an all too familiar rushing of air. Wes followed the sound to an open portal just in time to see a young, Asian woman land in front of it. She was wearing a black track suit with silver stripes down the sleeves. She immediately took a device out of her pocket and began moving it up and down as if she were scanning something.

Wes crossed arms, frowning. "Hi there, what brings you here?"

The woman looked up at him and frowned. "I don't have time for this right now, I'm busy."

Wes sighed, and pulled out his badge. "Well you better make time, because I'm with the Silver Guardians…"

"What's a Silver Guardian?"

"We're a special security agency in Silver Hills…"

"This is Amber Beach," she said wrinkling her nose."I don't have time to flirt with you, and besides, I have a boyfriend."

"We have jurisdiction throughout the coast for anything supernatural or otherwise out of the ordinary." Wes rolled his eyes."I'm not flirting with you, I saw you come out of the portal…"

She reached into her pocket, pulling out the weirdest gun Wes had ever seen. No, it was a morpher. "You don't want to mess with me." 

Wes rolled up his sleeve, showing her his morpher. "Not when we're on the same side. Do you have the instant recognition thing in your universe too?"

The woman's jaw dropped. "You're a Power Ranger! Are you from this dim..." 

She cut off as Wes waved his hands frantically.. "Shh! Not so loud! Do you want Sledge to overhear you? Or the press?"

"Sorry." Gemma hung her head.

"Sorry for the cloak and dagger routine. We keep our identities secret over here and we've had a lot of bad luck with enemies coming out of portals over the years."

"Well, I'm sorry too. I should have expected someone local to have taken an interest, I just wasn't expecting anyone this quickly."

"So I take it you're not the reason that my team is getting strange readings in this area?" Wes asked, deciding to leave time travel out of it for the time being.

"If you're talking about the new universe forming while simultaneously creating a paradox, then no, I was drawn here by the same weird readings. My mentor picked them up all the way from a different dimension. Do you know Emily and Kevin?"

"I've met them briefly." Wes snapped his fingers. "You're from that dimension that they visited! Is Scott your Red?"

"His reputation precedes him, I see." She held out her hand for Wes to shake. "I'm Gemma."

"Wesley Collins, but you can call me Wes." He shook her hand.

"So, Wes, you're here chasing the new weird universe nexus too?"

"I know there's some kind of time disruption, but my intel wasn't clear as to what kind."

Gemma held up her scanner. "This indicates that there's some kind of paradox here, like there's two things that happened at once." She looked around, her eyes falling on something behind Wes. Her jaw dropped. "Did… Did the dinosaurs not go extinct in this world?"

"Yes, they did… why do you ask?"

Gemma closed her mouth and grabbed Wes by the shoulders and turned him around so that he was facing the other direction. The head of a brontosaurus was towering over the back of the museum —only now, the sign read "Amber Beach Dinosaur Park."

"You must have very sensitive equipment to detect this kind of emerging paradox from an entirely different universe. That sign said Amber Beach dinosaur museum not five minutes ago."

"Dr. K is the best," Gemma said.

"Oh shit," Wes said as another portal opened up.

Six teenagers spilled out of a portal in front of the museum.

"Let's hope that's the current team," Wes said.

Gemma didn't say anything. Wes turned around to find her mouth hanging open again. 

"What's wrong?" Wes asked.

"I seen pictures of that girl before, she's Scott's baby sister. She died on our world."

The kids started to make their way into the museum--zoo. Wes motion for Gemma to follow him and crept quietly after them. They walked through a gallery, watching the kids gape at the dinosaurs.

"I will catch you guys later," Red said very loudly, "I need to head to the bathroom."

"I hope everything comes out okay," Black said in a New Zealand accent.

Red pulled a face at him, but Black just shrugged. Red jogged off in the direction of the restrooms.

The rest of the group walked past an ichthyosaur tank to stare at what appeared to be a display of baby raptors.

"Why are you two following us?"

Wes and Gemma spun around to find Red staring at them. His arms were crossed and his eyes narrowed.

Wes reached up to scratch his nose, letting his sleeve fall down so that his morpher came into view.

Red's jaw dropped. "You're a Power Ranger?"

Gemma was holding her morpher close to her body now.

Red gaped. "You're both Power Rangers?"

"We sure are," Wes said.

The rest of the team approached them.

"Speak up, Tyler, I don't think they heard you in Blue Bay Harbor." Blue said, although the shade of blue he was wearing was closer to aqua then to the traditional blue--maybe he was a water ranger?

Tyler rolled his eyes. "Knock it off, Dad, I'm eighteen."

"Not the time Tyler," a woman wearing purple said. She reached out her hand. "I'm Kendall Morgan, Purple Ranger and the team's mentor. What brings you to Amber Beach?"

Wes reached out to shake it. "A nascent time paradox."

"Time paradox?" Green said. "Is that why there are dinosaurs suddenly alive?"

"Yes, they're supposed to be extinct," Gemma said.

"We know that, but it sounds like we should take this to the base," Kendall said.

"That sounds like a good idea," Wes said.

***

"So what you're saying is that by stopping Sledge in the time of the dinosaurs we caused a paradox." Kendall leaned against her work bench.

"And in your world my big brother Scott is the Red Ranger?" Shelby added. She was perched on the table next to Kendall, her feet swinging wildly.

"Sort of," Gemma said. "Well, it's in danger because of stopping Sledge in the past; not even Scott could endanger the multi-verse single-handedly."

"You sure you've met Scott?" Shelby quipped.

"So what do we do? Do we have to go back in and undo it?" Riley was standing by the central table, his arms crossed. "And then will we be back to battling Sledge everyday?"

"Not exactly," Gemma said. She pressed some buttons on her scanner and an image that looked like a figure 8 rendered on a Star Wars targeting computer appeared on the table next to Riley. "The problem is that there's a closed loop holding the two universes together. If we can break the loop, we should be able to split the two universes off." The image shifted accordingly. "The problem is that leaving your teammates in the past--that is returning them to their own times--rather than bringing them all the way to the future, has only exacerbated the problem. Their memories are forming multiple anchor points."

"So you're saying we have to go drag Ivan and Koda away from their home times to preserve the timeline and the multi-verse?" James said.

Wes's phone dinged and he looked at the read out, frowning at the text from Trip. "It gets more complicated than that. It's hard for Trip to know for sure, but he's concerned that they've also become a part of history. We're going to have to do some fancy footwork in order to get things worked out."

"That explains how Ivan had an ancestor," Chase said.

"That would be one way he's embedded," Wes said. "We're going to have to get him carefully."

"But to do that, we'll have to actually find them in the past," Shelby said. "How are we even going to get to the past?"

"I may have a phone a friend on that." Wes clicked on the "Video Chat" option on his phone.

A moment later, Trip's face appeared. "Hey Wes! Does this have something to do with that information you asked me for?"

"Yes," Wes said. "there's a time paradox at the heart of this and it we've got an anchored loop that's preventing an alternate universe split. I think those two individuals are the anchor points."

Trip winced. "That's really not good. That's incredibly dangerous in fact. I can't ask anyone else to handle that. Let me round up Jen and the rest of the team and we'll be back to 2016 to help you ourselves."

Wes raised an eyebrow.

"This is serious, Wes."

"I know it is," Wes said. "I have..." He counted. "Nine ranges here already. One more is the traditional number for these things."

Trip laughed. "I value my life too much to visit you without the other three."

"So I can call Eric then?"

"I told you, no."

"Eric is going to destroy me," Wes said.

"Don't worry," Trip grinned. "I'll deal with him, or else I'll just sic Taylor on him."

Wes blinked. "How did you know..."

"Spoilers." Trip winked. 

Wes scrubbed a hand over his face. "Why did I tell you to watch _Doctor Who_?"

"See you soon, Wes."

"I'm looking forward to it," Wes said honestly. The connection closed.

"The entire rest of your team is in the future?" Shelby asked.

"No," Wes said. "Eric, our Sixth, is still here. But yeah, everyone else is in the future. This is the first time I'll be seeing them in person since 2002."

Gemma frowned. "That sounds awful; Dylan— our Black—went out into the waste with Summer, our Yellow, and his sister Tenaya. We only see them every few months, and that's hard enough. I can't imagine them being somewhere where we couldn't even see them occasionally. 14 years! That sounds like torture."

"Thanks, I think," Wes said.

"Given how happy I am that we're going after Koda and Ivan, I'm having trouble imagining what you must go through on a daily basis," Kendall said.

"Don't split the party," James said from where he stood near the cave formation where everyone had deposited their gemstones upon arriving.

"What do you mean, Dad?" Tyler asked. He was leaning on the table, on the other side of Shelby from Kendall.

Wes was going to have to find out why Tyler was calling James "Dad" all the time--sure, they kind of looked alike, but James couldn't be that much older than him.

"It's a Dungeons & Dragons reference." James blushed. "It means that you're likely to get in trouble if you don't stick together."

"And you didn't think to mention this before now?" Riley asked.

"And tell Koda and Ivan that they couldn't go home?" James shook his head." I didn't have the heart to tell them that. No one should be separated from their family."

Tyler didn't say anything, but was looking at James askance. Wes wondered if James had done some time traveling of his own, that would certainly explain the lack of an age difference--and Tyler's seemingly bitter look.

"Can you help me figure out where we need to go before Trip gets here?" Wes asked. "Time Force's pre-computer data banks aren't the best."

"Zandar, 1223 CE," Philip replied. "August 14."

Wes blinked. "You sound pretty sure. How?"

"Old family legend." Phillip shook his head. "No, wait, all this time I thought it was, but it's not a legend. It's family oral history; I grew up hearing tales of the mighty knight, Sir Ivan of Zandar, and where he disappeared. Both times."

"That sounds good," Gemma said,"but what about Koda?"

"Good question," Kendall replied. "I can tell you where Chase and I found his glacier, and the carbon dating, but..."

"Do we even know how closely Keeper put Koda compared to where he left?" Chase asked. "We could trace his Energem, and then wait for Future Koda to reappear."

"He had his powers in the past?" Gemma asked.

"The way he tells it he got his Energem and then he got trapped in the water and then the glacier," Kendall explained, "and then the Energem kept him alive."

"Trip might have an idea." Wes placed a hand on each of Riley's and Chase's shoulders, steering them towards the door. "We should get going, we don't want to be late."

"What's the hurry, mate?" Chase asked, hurrying to keep up with Wes's brisk pace. "We're meeting a time machine, it's not like we're going to go to a different time if we get there any later."

"He hasn't seen his team in 14 years." Gemma rolled her eyes, and started corralling Tyler, Shelby, and Kendall. "Wouldn't you be in a rush?"

"Good point!" Chase said.

***

Gemma climbed out of Wes's jeep, Kendall and Philip getting out of the backseat behind her. 

A large, cylindrical vessel was just landing on the beach. Wes sprang out of his jeep, for got to close the door, instead he bounded down the beach to the extending ramp. A woman wearing a white uniform with a pink undershirt ran down to meet him, fell into his embrace, and then kissed him passionately.

"Oh man," Chase said, joining Gemma and the others after having got out of Tyler's Jeep, "bad enough to be separated from your team, was he also separated from his girlfriend?"

"It certainly looks that way." Shelby took Tyler's hand. 

Tyler squeezed her hand. "No wonder he was in such a rush to get here. I would be too."

Three more people came down the ramp, exchanging amused glances, and patiently waiting for their turns to hug Wes. The others hung back a moment, feeling as though they were intruding on a private moment for the Time Force team.

Once hugs and some sort of words had been exchanged, Wes motioned the rest of the group over.

Gemma walked at the back of the Dino Charge pack, feeling a little out of place. Her interdimensional communicator buzzed in her pocket. She took it out to find a text from Dr. K.

_Stay and help; just because the current team is involved doesn't mean that you're not needed. This affects our universe too, and it would be very helpful if I can communicate my readings to you if needed. Ask the Time Force tech for help to get messages across time. I'm sure that between the two of you you can adjust your communicator. And I'm available for consultation if needed._

Gemma texted back ":-)" wishing she could bring herself to tell Dr. K that she felt superfluous with all of these Rangers here.

"Hey, Gemma," Wes called, "Trip wants to see your readings, it'll help us figure out exactly when we need to go to find Koda."

Gemma jogged up the ramp, following the others onto the Time Ship.

***

"Wow, this is awesome!" Gemma wanted to jump up and down for joy when she saw Trip's lab. She didn't know what half of the machines sitting on the lab benches lining the walls did, but they were all silver and had flashing lights and were just really awesome!

"New state of the art laboratory for all Time ships," Trip said. "After our last mission 2001, they become standard on every ship because I was often strapped for the the proper technology to complete our mission. Making do with early 21st Century equipment was often a giant challenge, but I got to do a lot of hacking which is fun. Anyway, can you tell me about that scanner that you're using?"

Gemma was vaguely aware of Wes drifting into the room. She took a big deep breath, focusing. "Dr. K and I cooked it up after the Samurai team visited; we still feel bad that that Zord got trapped in an Infinity Loop; it never should've happened. Since then we've been looking for different ways to search for disruptions in space-time. It scans for a combination of Arton energy and tachyon pulses. Largely by scanning for tachyon levels. There's some other more complicated things, but that's the gist of it."

Trip smiled, pulling up some schematics. "Stop me when this looks familiar."

"Stop," Gemma said, "that's a basic circuit for…"

"Okay," Trip said, "let me rephrase. Stop me when you see something that looks familiar for scanning tachyons particles."

Gemma laughed. "Sounds good."

***

Lucas came in a few minutes after Gemma and Trip had decided to call a stretch break. Wes was impressed with how well Gemma had adjusted to the unfamiliar technology, and soon she and Trip were in the middle of such a highly complicated yes and... session that Wes had lost the plot.

"We're in 13th-century Zandar," Lucas said. "Do you guys want to join us, or do you need to finish figuring out how to scan for Koda?"

"We think we finished with the code." Trip turned around from the console. "It needs to compile for a while, so we're available to help."

"Are we sure that we want to just converge on Ivan with both teams?" Wes asked. "After all, he knows the Dino Charge team best."

Lucas rubbed the bride of his nose. "Tyler said the same thing, but Jen wants all hands on deck."

Wes sighed. "I'll talk to her."

Gemma tilted her head, leaning against the lab table. "You're red aren't you?"

Lucas chuckled.

"It's complicated," Wes said.

"Our team formed in 3001, and Wes here was just the newbie with no experience," Lucas said.

"But he's not a newbie anymore!" Gemma said.

"You haven't met Jen," Wes said. "That's not an argument I'm going to win so I don't care to fight. If our morphers weren't DNA locked I'd swap with her. Now if you'll excuse me, this is when I think I should argue with her."

With that he walked out of the room.

***


	2. Chapter 2

Gemma walked off of the ship with Tyler, Shelby, Wes, and Trip. Jen had agreed with Wes that the full force of 12 people was way too many to send traipsing about in the past. Tyler had agreed to allow Trip and Gemma, who knew the most about the situation come along. Jen felt she needed to stay with the ship, but had sent Wes in her place. Wes was concerned she felt the current team needed a chaperone, but figured he'd take the victory.

“Sir Tyler! Dame Shelby!” Ivan said jovially. “I hadn’t expected to see you again a scant few months after we last parted. You’ve brought friends!”

“This is Wes and Gemma, they’re Rangers from other teams. They specialize in time travel and multiple universes.”

“Universes?” Ivan asked. 

“It’s a long story,” Wes said.

“Like Earth One vs Earth Two on The Flash,” Tyler said.

“Apparently not that long,” Wes said.

Shelby turned so Wes could see her roll her eyes at him. “The point is that when we defeated Sledge before he came to Amber Beach, we broke the timeline. And you and Koda being in different times is stopping an alternate universe from forming. And if one doesn't form, the pressure on the multi-verse will lead to a cataclysmic event that even the Power Rangers can't stop."

"So I need to come with you?" Ivan asked. "I must admit, that the moment the portal closed behind me I rather regretted leaving in the first place."

"You'll be able to come to your home time once the new universe cements itself," Trip said.

"So a quick jaunt to the future then?" Ivan asked. He sounded disappointed.

"We need to find Koda first," Tyler replied.

"Let's get back to the time ship before someone notices all of the anachronistic clothing," Trip said.

"Good plan," Wes said. "Why don't you keep period appropriate clothing on board anyway?"

"Because the Time Ship isn't a TARDIS and doesn't have replicators," Trip replied shortly.

"They have Star Trek and Doctor Who in the future?" Tyler asked.

"They're even in the public domain," Trip replied.

"The $64,000 question," Shelby asked. "Is Mickey Mouse?"

"Spoilers," Trip said.

The group groaned as they trudged back to the Time Ship.

* * *

Gemma followed Trip back to his lab once they returned to the Time Ship. "Is it done compiling?" 

"It looks like it is." Trip hit a few buttons. "Let's fire it up." He flipped a bunch of switches, then hit a several buttons, and finally threw a lever.

"Trip," Jen's voice came through the comms, "Why did a set of time and space coordinates just appear on the bridge console?"

"If Gemma's and my calculations are correct, then that's where Koda is."

"Laying them in now," Lucas said.

"Come on," Trip said. "There's nothing else we can do from here, so we might as well head up to the bridge."

* * *

The Time Ship landed, and then Lucas turned on the outside scanners. He blinked as ice and fauna filled the screen. "Your friend Koda is from the ice age?"

"Well, technically," Kendall said. "He's from about 100,000 years ago. But during one of the warmer periods." She gestured towards the screen. "This is not the right time period."

Outside was a giant glacier and the frozen tundra.

"We are about that far back," Trip said, looking at the time scanner. "It looks like the spacial coordinates are what's off." He compared the readout from his and Gemma's code to the readout of the current location of the ship. "Drat. We're in the wrong place."

"No, we are not," Chase said. "look, on that ridge see that glow? I think that's Koda's energem. He's frozen. We're late, we need to go earlier. At least I hope so, because otherwise Keeper sent him back to the wrong time and he froze to death."

Shelby whimpered, burying her face in Tyler's chest. 

Tyler patted her back. "Don't worry, I'm sure Keeper didn't miss."

"And his Energem would've protected him at any rate," Kendall added.

"Let me pull up the code." Trip started typing into the bridge computer. "We have to be very close."

Gemma started going through the code line by line once it appeared on the screen. Was that right? That couldn't be right. She tapped an area of the code. "I think we need to change the Time parameter here: we found the rates object, but that Energem hasn't activated yet."

"Oh, it's activated alright," Kendall said. "It activated the moment it bonded with Koda--right before he was trapped in the ice."

"Oh!" Gemma said. "You said that he fell right after he bonded with the Energem. I'll bet you that this is the first time that the Energem was active and scannable. We need to find the last moment that the Blue Energem wasn't bound."

"It was originally bound with a Stegosaurus," Kendall said, "at least in the original timeline. So we need to find after it deactivated, but before it reactivated."

"I have a question," Katie said. "If the Blue Energem was able to keep Koda alive when he was frozen in ice, why wasn't able to keep this Stegosaurus alive?"

"We asked keeper variations of that question at least 100 times, but he never gave us a straight answer," Riley said.

"Ah," Wes said. "that sounds like what the other teams referred to as a 'because I said so' moment."

"That is often one of Dr. K's favorite reasons for things," Gemma said. "Trip, if we add a parameter for body temperature, can we eliminate the stegosaurus from our scans, and then be able to find the last moment that is the unbound blue energem is visible to the scanner?"

Trip stared at her for a moment. "That should work. The question becomes what is the body temperature of the Stegosaurus?"

"Studies in my home universe at the alphabet soup think tank suggest that the Stegosaurus had a body temperature of around 20° C," Gemma said. "You said that Koda is a Neanderthal right? Do you know what his average body temperature is?"

"He ran a little bit cooler than we did," Kendall said. "Usually around 35° C."

"That's great!" Gemma said."So all we need to do is apply a filter." She took a quick look at the computer, and then started typing. "The Koda who got stuck in the ice would've had a lower body temperature, so what we look for is an active Energem with a being with a temperature close to 35° C."

* * *

Wes leaned over Trip's shoulder. "Did you teach her how to run your computers? I wouldn't think that you would've had time."

"Not really," Trip whispered. "She just watched me for a little while and then started messing with the code and typing as if she'd been doing it all her life."

Wes whistled low. "Wow."

"You only fall for women who aren't from your time or universe don't you?" Trip shook his head.

Wes grabbed Trip by the ear and dragged hm into the hallway outside of the bridge. Once the doors closed, he said, "Get your mind out of the gutter you… you… matchmaking jerk face."

Trip stared for a minute. "I was teasing."

"In case you hadn't noticed, Jen is a sore subject." Wes scrubbed a hand over his face.

"Sorry."

"It's okay, but please be mindful of that in future."

"Noted." Trip said. He palmed the door open and they went back onto the bridge.

Gemma turned around, and looked at Trip. "What do you think?"

Trip took a couple steps forward, reading her code. "I think it's a good thing we're from different times; otherwise I would be worried about my job."

Jen wrapped in arm around Trip's shoulders. "Don't worry, we're not going to ever kick you off the team. That said, do you need a lab assistant?"

Trip affectionately shoved her away. "I think her team would pitch fits."

"My brother certainly would," Gemma said, "but I appreciate the implied offer."

A new screen appeared, indicating that the code was compiling.

"What happens to Koda and me once we find him?" Ivan asked. He subconsciously shifted closer to his team.

"We get you to one end of the time shift or another," Lucas said. "and then you stay there until the alternate universe solidifies. Then we take you back to your time; if that's what you still want?"

"Why do they get to stay, if Jen doesn't?" Wes asked.

"It's a matter of degrees." Jen massaged the back of her neck. "When you're dealing with settling someone back in the past, you have to deal with the issue of possible knowledge of the future becoming a problem. Sometimes that means that the best thing is for that person to remain in the future, because the time stream contamination outweighs the dangers.

"The future knowledge is often the most important factor; we can take Ivan and Koda back to their own times, but we would need to take precautions so that they couldn't contaminate the timeline."

"Then why can't I come with you to the future?"

"I can't ask that of you." Jen bit her lip, her eyes downcast. "Also, you're needed in your time."

"I hate it when you guys get cryptic like that."

"I hate it when I can't give you a straight answer."

Wes sighed. He knew there was no use in continuing the conversation; he would only get the runaround.

***

Koda and Taku were playing catch with a ball that Koda had sewn out of Mammoth skins. They heard a strange noise in the forest and Koda ran to check it out, Taku close on his heels.

They've reached a clearing to see a long, cylindrical spaceship landing.

" _Taku, run,_ " Koda said in his native language.

" _Come with me._ " Taku looked at him with puppy dog eyes.

" _I can't, I have to stay and see what's going on. If I'm not back in an hour, take the tribe and head for the hills. This can only mean trouble._ "

Taku scrunched up his face, but ran for the forest. Koda was vaguely aware of him climbing a tree a little bit away from the clearing.

A ramp opened up from the belly of the ship. Koda bent his knees, bringing his fists up in front of his face. Four shadows appeared in the light streaming from the doorway. They stepped out of the light, and Koda immediately recognized two of the shadows as Tyler and Shelby. They were smiling, so Koda ran to meet them, enveloping them both in a giant bear hug.

"Koda, we kind of need to breathe," Shelby coughed out.

Koda eased his grip, pulling away, but kept his hands on their shoulders. "Koda glad to see you, but why you here?"

" _Koda who are your friends?_ " Taku asked from the edge of the clearing, having abandoned the tree.

" _They're my team: Shelby and Tyler. I can't tell you any more. Everything is fine; please come here for minute._ "

Taku cautiously approached the ship as a Koda led Tyler and Shelby down the ramp. They met Taku at the bottom of the ramp.

" _Taku, this is Shelby and Tyler, my friends._ Shelby, Tyler this Taku, my little brother."

Tyler smiled broadly, and extended his hand. "It's nice to meet you Taku."

" _He said it's nice to meet you,_ " Koda translated. " _You should take his hand and move it up and down. That's the tradition where he's from._ "

Taku shook Tyler's hand." _Please tell him it's nice to meet him too._ "

"Taku say it nice meet you too," Koda said.

Shelby and Taku shook hands as well.

" _Taku you should go home; I need to stay and find out what's going on,_ " Koda said.

" _Come home after it's over,_ " Taku said.

" _Don't worry little mouse, you will see me again._ " Koda hugged his little brother and then give him a gentle shove in the direction of the village.

Koda watched him go, his stomach twisting a little. What could be so wrong that Tyler and Shelby had come back to the past find him?

"Okay, what going on? Who your friends?"

"Koda these are Wes and Gemma, they're Power Rangers from other teams and they specialize in time distortions," Tyler said. "Apparently when we defeated Sledge in the past before he came to the future we messed things up."

"Like on The Flash?"

The man that Koda didn't know, who he assumed was Wes started laughing. "Did you know TV is good for something? Yes, Like on The Flash; a new Earth is trying to form but you and Ivan being in your home times is stopping that from happening."

"So Koda come with you and it fixed?"

"That's part of it," Gemma said.

"It's a long story, Koda," Tyler said.

"Please come inside and we'll tell you, " Shelby added.

***

Koda's eyes widened in wonder as he entered the Time Ship. Wes wondered if Koda would be able to go home after having seen so much of the future. He'd already seen 100,000 years into the future; now he was going to see another thousand. Technology had started moving so much more quickly in the last century, that the world was probably unrecognizable in the year 3000 from even 2016.

"Your Ranger teams get travel to space? Koda asked.

"Not our teams," Wes said. "I'm part of Time Force. This is a Time Ship, that we used to travel through time—my teammates are from the year 3000."

"3016," Trip corrected. "We've been trying to keep things so that we're contacting you in about as much time that has passed for you; otherwise it's just not fair."

Wes stared, looking at his teammate."Nothing about our situation is fair; Ranger teams shouldn't be split up."

"Koda and I wanted to go home," Ivan said. "We love our teammates, we loved being Power Rangers, but in the end we wanted to go home to our loved ones– our other family."

"And yet you jumped at the chance to come away with us right away," Wes said.

"We have a duty to the world, and the universe," Ivan said.

"Koda miss.... First family, but Koda always help team; team also Koda's family."

Tyler turned to look at Wes and Jen. "Alright, we found both Koda and Ivan; what's the plan now?"

"We go back to your home time stream and monitor what happens next," Jen said.

"Will we remember everything that happened?" Shelby asked.

"The time ship will shield us from those sorts of effects," Jen replied.

"Okay, that's good," Shelby said.

***

The Time Ship landed on the beach near Amber Beach a few minutes later.

"So how long before we know whether or not it worked?" Riley asked.

"Not long," Jen replied. "An hour tops."

"So if we'd taken a detour to the future before dropping Ivan and Koda off in the past, we could've avoided this whole mess?" Kendall said.

An alarm went off in the Time Ship.

"What's that?" Jen asked.

"I installed it when we traveled here," Trip said. "Since I knew we were going to be in a universe where Sledge had managed to destroy the dinosaurs, I figured it was wise to start scanning for Sledge's ship. The scanners just found it."

"So we've got Sledge," Tyler said. "but we don't have zords."

"Oh we have zords," Wes said. "We have a Megazord even."

Lucas chuckled a little. "Sledge doesn't know what's about to hit him." He started hitting a bunch of buttons on the console.

"You know Eric is going to destroy us if he doesn't get a chance to break out the Q-Rex," Wes said.

"Let it go Wes," Jen said her voice low.

Wes winced; whatever it was, it was bugging rest of his team a lot, and they really did want to tell him. It was hard to let it go, though, because Eric was going to give him the business for going off on his own—he only had one teammate still in the present— their adoption by Wild Force not withstanding—. This felt like a thing Eric might not forgive.

"You're not going to just call the Megazord and bash the ship out of the sky are you?" Gemma asked.

"How far back in time did you bring us?" Tyler asked.

"What do you mean?" Wes asked. "This is the exact time from which we left."

"But I thought that we were in the old universe," Riley said.

"Planet still here," Koda added. "This good thing, but very confusing."

"Wait, what?" Wes asked.

"In the time when and where the dinosaurs were dead, Sledge destroyed the planet. We had just enough energy left to use the Energems to come back in time," Tyler explained.

"That's a doozy of a paradox you guys made," Wes said.

"Actually, I just checked against chronometers attached to the various cell towers," Trip said. "And we're approximately 2 hours before we left. It looks like the ship safeties kicked in; probably because of the cataclysm that you guys just described."

"So we have two hours to keep Sledge from destroying the planet," Tyler said. "We know where all the eggs are now, maybe we should just move them?"

"Can we cut chains?" Koda asked.

"Wait," Wes said. "What exactly happened?"

Tyler took a deep breath. "Sledge buried three Greenzilla eggs around the planet, tried to fool us in the thinking that he was going to blow them up, and then used them as a winch to tow the earth; we managed to disconnect them but not before he pulled the Earth out of its orbit and both he and the Earth ended up going into a blackhole."

"What blackhole?" Trip asked.

"Better question, why don't I remember any of this when I remember the dinosaurs being extinct?" Wes asked.

"I think Keeper brought us back to a little bit before we left," Kendall said. "So that wouldn't have happened yet. As for why you remember the dinosaurs being extinct – I have no idea."

"You wearing morpher?" Koda asked.

"Yes, why?" Wes asked.

"Maybe it protect you from things the way that Energems protect us?"

Trip scrunched up his nose. "That is possible; the Time Force morphers were designed for Time Force officers. Whoever originally designed them would have planned on them being able to hold up to time travel effects. As such, it probably would confer a measure of protection against paradox issues and time line alterations.

"Which brings us back to 'what blackhole?'" Wes replied.

"The one that was formed when the Dark Energem exploded," Tyler said.

"There's a dark version of your Power source?" Wes asked. "That sounds like a really bad idea."

"According to Keeper, the person who designed that one was full of really bad ideas," Kendall said. "You say this like there isn't a huge precedent for evil Rangers though."

"Yes, but usually there was some sort of intervening influence causing the Rangers or their Powers to turn evil; it wasn't a constitutive part of the power source or morpher," Wes said.

"Sounds like hairsplitting to me," James said. "I think we'd be better off trying to figure out how to stop Earth from getting sucked into the Dark Energem black hole again. Or better yet stop the Dark Energem from falling into Sledge's hands in the first place."

"We may be a little bit late for that," Shelby said. "Based on what Heckyl told us, that may have already happened."

"Which brings us to getting the Dark Energem back from Sledge," Tyler said. "Which means sneaking onto his ship. And that didn't go so well last time."

"We could just blow it up! Boom time!" Gemma suggested.

"You seriously want to escalate a battle?" Wes asked.

"Unless someone can turn invisible? Is it really escalating a battle when the only other choice is the loss of the entire planet?" Gemma asked. "Besides, I like explosions!"

"We have a stealth rig," Trip said. "It bends light really well, but it doesn't dampen sound worth anything--you'd have to be really careful not to make any noise."

"Koda go."

"I've been to the ship before, Koda.." Tyler started.

"Tyler very loud. Scare animals in forest. Koda hunt. Sneak up small animals. Deer now. Mammoths before. Other animals. Koda quietest."

"He's got a point, Tyler," Shelby pointed out.

"We've talked about delegating," James added.

Tyler threw a glare at James that rivaled J.J. Oliver in a snit fit.

"Please?" Koda said.

"Are you sure you can do this, Koda?" Wes asked. "I mean..."

If Tyler's 'stop it, Dad' look rivaled J.J. Oliver's, then Koda's 'are you serious look' made Amelia Mitchell-Grayson's look like a resting bitch face.

"OK, Koda. You can go, but be careful," Tyler said.

"Koda always careful."

"Except that time you broke my cell phone!" Shelby exclaimed.

Koda rolled his eyes. "Koda not attack everything that scare him anymore. Promise."

* * *

Koda was very impressed by the teleporter that the Time Ship had. He was whisked directly from the Time Ship Control Room to a disused corridor on Sledge's ship.

He was wearing a cloaking device on his belt, which Trip told him would let him to sneak around without anyone seeing him. He had to put on a Time Force uniform to wear it, and that was a little bit binding--especially because he wasn't allowed to tear the sleeves, but it was worth it not to be seen. When he had exclaimed that it was magic, Trip had explained that actually it was bending light rays around him in order to make it _look_ like he was invisible. Koda figured that was the same thing, but would ask Kendall to explain better once they had more time.

Koda crept down the hallway, heading for the master control room. Tyler had been very concerned when Shelby suggested that that was where the Dark Energem was likely to be, but they only had two hours in order to get control of it before all hell broke loose on Earth, so there really wasn't much of a choice.

He got to the right room, but the doors were closed. It was very tempting to just open the doors and walk-through, but that would have been a dead giveaway--emphasis on dead. Koda didn't want to die; he wanted to save everyone, so he waited. Thankfully, he didn't have to wait very long. A couple of Vivex went through the door, and Koda snuck in behind them. Sledge was gloating, as Koda had always suspected that he would; his eyes were on the screen and he had his back to the door.

"Soon those Powerless Rangers will be defeated and I'll be able to sell the Earth for scrap! Either they will give me the Energems, or I'll get to destroy their pitiful planet in revenge!"

Koda snuck up to the chair, where he could see the Dark Energem pulsing faintly.

"Oh, Sledge-y," Poisandra said, flinging her arms wide. "Where do you want to go for our honeymoon?"

Sledge turned, and Koda froze. Sledge couldn't see him, but that didn't mean he wouldn't notice the Dark Energem disappearing into thin air.

"Wherever you want, my dear Poisandra," Sledge replied. "I will be so happy having finally bested the Power Rangers that I don't much care."

Poisandra whirled him around so that his back was to Koda again. Poisandra leaned in close, leaning her head against Sledge's. "Sledgey, I need your help with this! There're too many good choices I need help to eliminate some."

Koda picked up the Dark Energem.

"But Poisandra, my dark, my love, I'll be happy with whatever you choose! And it's not like we have to choose, we can go on a very long honeymoon once we sell all of the Energems."

Koda pocketed the Dark Energem, and then went to hang out by the door. The door slid open, admitting another pair of Vivix. Koda slipped through it, and then went back to the disused corridor. 

He opened up the communicator that Wes had given him. What was the code phrase again? "Beam me up, Scotty." Was that Trip's last name?

Sledge's shipped disappeared to be replaced by the Time Ship control room.

Trip and Wes were laughing, and Riley was covering his mouth with his hand.

"Okay, what so funny?" Koda asked.

Chase hit his forehead with his palm."I'm sorry Koda, I can't believe I never made you watch Star Trek!"

"Chase did! Light sabers!"

"That's Star _Wars_ ," Riley said. "They're two different things. I still can't believe we never taught you that reference!"

Koda shrugged. "Koda had lot to learn; not lot of time for movies."

"To be fair the whole thing is apocryphal anyway," James said. "No one actually says that in the show."

"What we do with this?" Koda asked, taking the Dark Energem out of his pocket.

"We put it in the base?" Riley asked. "Or wait, has Sledge destroyed that already?"

"Better plan," Kendall said. "We chuck it in the sun."

"What if it makes sun suck in Earth?" Koda asked. "we use sun make… Black hole? Before."

"He's got a point there," Wes said. "There's got to be a safer way to destroy that thing."

"Are we sure we can safely destroy it?" Gemma asked." Maybe it would be better if I take it back to my dimension? Then Sledge can't get it."

"You from another world?" Koda asked. "Koda see?"

"Easy there big guy," Riley said. "We need to get you home."

"Koda want visit, not stay!" Koda hugged Riley fiercely. "Koda not leave you again! Not forever!"

"Are you sure Koda?" Chase asked. "It's not like we're going to always have this Time Ship."

"I can always ask Trip and…"

"Actually, we're going to need to figure out how to get them into their alternate universe," Trip said. "They already have counterparts here; we'll end up with two sets."

"Koda would like say goodbye other family, then come back here. Would also like to visit Gemma. Koda miss team."

"What do you think, Jen?" Trip asked. "Think we can take a quick round trip to the past?"

"Well, if Koda wanted to stay in the past, we would have to do that anyway. How is the commander going to know whether or not Koda was onboard when we came back? Especially if he's going to an alternate universe anyway?"

Koda glomped Jen round the middle."Thank you!"

Jen grinned, awkwardly patting Koda's back."You're welcome."

***

"So we just… walk through?" Koda asked.

He stared at the clear, shimmery disc of light.

"You should take one of these first," Gemma said. "It will take you either to my universe or to Wes's universe. Well my universe is the gold button, Wes's is the red button, blue will get you home, and then the third button will let you set coordinates. It's just in case we all need to go somewhere else."

"Why Koda?" Koda asked.

"You went over to an alien ship, wearing unaccustomed clothes, using technology that you didn't even have a name for, and you're asking why you?" Gemma asked."Tyler didn't seem like the type of Red to cause an inferiority complex."

"Should I be insulted?" Wes asked.

"I have one for you too," Gemma replied, tossing him one as well. "In case you want to go on adventures while Eric is preoccupied."

"Wait, did they tell you and not me?" Wes asked. He turned, to glare at Trip. "Not cool."

"Well we had stuff to talk about well we were figuring out how best to get Ivan back home without causing any more problems," Trip said. "It took a little while to realize that what we needed to do was travel back in time, and then open him a portal."

"Koda hope see Ivan again."

"I keep thinking I've seen the last of these guys, and I keep thinking wrong." Wes smiled ruefully. "I'm not complaining, exactly, but I keep thinking that one of the times it might just be for keeps."

"Don't go wandering off by yourself," Jen said."If you're not back here the next time I come, I'm going to be the angry with you."

"If he doesn't bring me along I'm going to punch him," Gemma said. "Or maybe blow up Silver Guardians headquarters."

"I'd love to see you try," Wes said.

"Careful, she has a tendency to accept challenges like that," a man wearing a tracksuit like Gemma's, but with blue trim, stood in front of another portal.

"Flynn!" Gemma ran to him, and gave him a big hug, then a quick kiss on the lips. "What are you doing here?"

"You're running very very late, I got worried."

"I'm fine!"

"I'm not surprised, but if I didn't come through that portal your brother was going to."

"Thanks! I'll be just another minute or two."

Gemma ran back to where Wes and Koda were standing. "I have these for you, too." She handed them each a scanner. "These will go off if there's big trouble in your universe or if the universal boundaries start having issues again. The portal generators are also communicators, call me if you need anything."

"Thank you!" Wes said. "This is a great idea. There's always some sort of strange thing going on about every five years or so. We'll probably need this again sooner or later."

"Thank you. Koda will call if need."

Chase popped his head through the portal."Hey Koda! Are you coming or what?"

"What." Koda grinned mischievously.

"Very funny," Chase said.

"Koda come soon."

"You guys better go before something weird happens with those portals," Wes said."Keep in touch; I'll hopefully talk to you soon. Unless these are emergency only communicators?"

"Right now there's only the three of us," Gemma said. "So definitely call if you need anything. Or anything blown up."

"I'll definitely send you a beach party invite then," Wes said. "We can decide if it's worth opening the portals later."

"Sound good. Koda see later." He ran through the portal.

Wes was really sure he heard the sound of Chase grunting through the portal.

"That was a tackle hug," Gemma said.

"Definitely," Wes said.

Gemma kissed his cheek."Take care of yourself." She ran to meet Flynn at the portal.

Wes turned to his teammates, dreading what came next; what always came next."So you going to tell me about Eric or not?"

***

It was about three months later, when Wes finally figured out why the team had been so insistent that Eric remain behind.

He rang the doorbell to Eric and Taylor's apartment, and was immediately ushered inside.

"Okay, Eric, we're all here," Wes said."What's the big news? I've been stewing all day."

"Not very patient today are you, Collins?" Taylor asked.

"I have my reasons," Wes said. He had never told Eric and Taylor about his adventures with the rest of the team; Eric would have been a little bit hurt and very angry not to have been told, but he never would have admitted it, so Wes would've been in for months of passive aggressive complaints. He had a feeling that he was about to find out, finally, what the heck the team had not told him all those months ago.

"I'm pregnant!" Taylor said."About three months; didn't want to tell anybody until the first trimester had passed. We haven't even told our parents yet."

"Congratulations!" Wes gathered Taylor and Eric into a hug.

"Geez, Collins, just because I'm about to be a dad doesn't mean that I'm about to go all sappy on you."

"I'll just be sappy enough for both of us then." Wes said. He wondered what was so important about this baby–or whether the team just hadn't wanted to mess with Eric's personal timeline.

Either way, all sorts of adventure lay ahead.

The end


End file.
